General Tips for Troop Leaders

 In order to have a better understanding of what leading a troop is all about,

take advantage of the many resources available to you:

 

 

Attend your local Service Unit meetings: (A Service Unit includes all the Girl Scout adult and girl members within a particular geographic area or school district.)  These meetings, run for and by the volunteers, are usually held once a month in your local area and offer invaluable networking and fun.  The Service Unit Manager and other Service Team members will have up-to-date information on activities that your girls may participate in. In addition, leaders with more experience attend the meetings and can share valuable information with you on program resources, paperwork, troop management, etc.

Go to the training classes: When you sign up to be a leader, you must take your training in the level you will be a leader in. The Service Unit Manager will have a schedule for the classes. Your Council also offers dozens of other classes on such things as crafts, songs and games, first aid, etc.

Read your grade-level "Journeys" and "Journey Facilitator’s Guides", "It’s Your Journey – Customize It", and "The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting": These books have information that will help you get started with your individual program.  Borrow before you buy!  Many Service Units or Councils have resource lending libraries.

Visit your Service Unit, Council and National GSUSA websites often for ideas:  
Chesapeake Bay Council   www.cbgsc.org  
Girl Scouts of the USA   www.girlscouts.org

Join your Service Unit’s Facebook group if one is available: This will keep you informed of current discussions among other local volunteers and will connect you to what other troops are doing.

Use the older girls in your Service Unit: Many would love to help you with your first few meetings, teaching the younger girls songs and games.

Talk with the parents of the girls in your troop: Find out what skills the parents have that you can use in your meetings.  Ask them for suggestions for program and activity ideas and trips, and what they would be willing to help with.  If your parents stay during the meetings, pass around a notebook and ask them to jot down their ideas for fun activities and trips.  Since they generated the ideas, they're more likely to offer to help!  If you need help holding a parent committee meeting, ask your Service Unit Team for assistance.

Talk to the girls: Ask them what they want to do. Remember the girl is first in Girl Scouting! If the girls are in kindergarten or first grade, limit the choices you ask them to make, so as to not overwhelm them. 

Progression is the key: We crawl before we walk, and we walk before we run.  Remember to introduce trips, camping, and skills as a progression.  Progression gives the girls confidence to tackle the next step!  Brownies are not ready for a weekend camping trip without first having an outdoor evening event; then an indoor overnight, then a back yard campout or one night camping trip.  Daisy trips should be limited in time and distance; Brownies can venture further for a day trip; Juniors can travel for a weekend; Teens are ready for cross-country and international travel.

How to Work with Girls

Help every girl shine!

1. Build on the strengths of each Girl Scout.  Show that you have a positive attitude by focusing on what each girl can do, not on what she can't.  Your positive attitude will rub off on her and help her develop a positive attitude about herself.  By emphasizing her strengths, you will help her develop her potential and grow in positive ways.

2. Don't hesitate to ask a girl the best way for her to do something.  Make directions simple.  Accompany verbal directions with physical help if necessary, but don't do the project for her.  Affirm that she can succeed.

3. Offer help in small doses.  Do not hold all girls to a uniform standard of performance.  Vary the amount of help and support given in a situation according to each girl's physical and emotional state.  Watch for signs of fatigue, and alternate quiet and active activities.

4. Allow the girl to learn by experience.  Encourage her to find things out for herself, but offer help and support when it is necessary to avoid catastrophic failure or discouragement.  Rejoice with her when she achieves something important to her, no matter how small.

5. Build a friendly and understanding relationship with each girl.  Accept her as she is, feelings and all, so she learns to trust you and your guidance.

6. Speak in quiet, pleasant tones.  Talk directly to girls, not from across the room or play area.  Be sure that the girl understands you.  Keep her attention when you speak.

7. Phrase directions positively rather than negatively, for example:  "Put your cup in the trashcan" rather than "Don't leave your cup on the table."  Praise the type of behavior you wish to encourage rather than only rebuking negative behavior.

8. Leaders should discipline each others' daughters.  You are the Girl Scout Leader at the meeting, not "Mom".  Leaders should treat their daughters the same as the other girls.  For example, your daughter should not have to clean up after the others have left - clean up is a shared responsibility among girls.

9. Parent helpers should be encouraged to work with all the girls, not just their own daughter.  Have them help at a table of multiple girls, or at a station with girls rotating through.

10. Limits should be clearly defined and consistently maintained.  Girls want clear rules, and should be encouraged to help make them.

11. Make full use of the "buddy system" (pairing girls up so they can watch out for each other.)  Rotate buddies so that everyone gets a chance to know everyone else and avoid cliques.

12. Involve each girl's family as much as possible.  Send notes home, spend time speaking to family members at drop off or pick up time, seek out those you don't often get a chance to speak with.  Find something positive and complimentary to say about everyone's daughter, regardless of her challenges.

SODA Method of Conflict Resolution

Conflict happens.  Helping girls (and adults!) learn how to mediate resolution when conflict happens is a critical life skill.  The SODA method is a simple, easy way for girls and adults to remember the steps to take when trying to resolve conflicts.

S = Situation

   What occurred?  What led up to the situation?

O = Options

   How can this be resolved?  
   (share, ignore, tell an adult, take turns, explain, move to a different 
   spot, argue, say bad words, hit, gossip, …)

D = Decide

   Determine which options might work (and which are inappropriate), 
   then mutually decide to try one that holds potential for a positive 
   outcome.

A = Assess

   Try the agreed upon action for a while, then assess its effectiveness.  
   If not completely effective or satisfactory to both parties, try 
   another likely option.

Conflict Resolution for Juniors, Teens and Adults

Ways to help Juniors, teens and adults prevent and resolve conflicts.

You are at a Troop meeting and there is a lot going on today.  The girls will be finishing up some badgework, planning their next camping trip, and you also want to turn their thoughts toward an upcoming service opportunity.  As the girls enter the meeting room, you notice that Darla and Monique are surrounded by their own clusters of girls, and there is a lot of whispering and glancing from one group to the other.  Lakeshia slides into the room and takes a seat without greeting anyone, and looks like she has been crying.  As the meeting gets underway, Darla makes a suggestion about the badge activity, and Monique stage-whispers a caustic comment, drawing a lot of snickering from the girls clustered at her table.  You and your co-leader begin to head over to the table when you notice that Lakeshia is withdrawn and not participating in the activity.

Yikes!  It's hard to stay focused in situations where a lot is happening at once.  You need listening and conflict resolution skills you can use yourself and teach to the girls.

SKILLS YOU CAN USE:

1. Stop it before it starts

The first conflict resolution skill is prevention.  Some situations will still occur despite our best efforts to "be prepared", but in some cases planning and forethought might reduce or avoid conflict.  As you and the girls get more experience being a Troop, you'll get more skillful at heading off upsets before they begin.

Can you think of ways that any of the above situations could have been prevented or mitigated?

Darla and Monique: _______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2. Be present and attentive

Being calm and attentive are important skills to exercise in any situation, and especially when things get chaotic.  If you were planning to use time when the girls were engaged in one activity to quickly read over the instructions for the next activity, the impact of all the above is going to be even more stressful.  Decide ahead of time that once the meeting starts, you will be present and available to the girls the entire time, and stay attentive and involved.  When you are distracted, the girls will notice and react poorly.

How might these situations have been different if an attentive adult were present?

Darla and Monique: _______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Lakeshia: ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

3. Listen well

Part of being attentive is being a good listener.  Periodically ask yourself these questions:  Do I look at a girl when she is speaking to me?  Do I interrupt?  Do I wait to give a girl a chance to answer me?  Does my body language and facial expression indicate interest or distraction?  You model attitudes of attention and caring for your Troop by listening.

What might your co-leader be doing to help Darla and Monique work out their conflict?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

What might you be doing to help Lakeshia? ____________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

SKILLS YOU CAN TEACH THE GIRLS:

1. Active Listening

In many conflicts, what each person wants is just to be heard, to have her point of view acknowledged.  In active listening, each person restates in her own words what she heard the other say.  Use phrases like "It sounds like you said…." Or "If I understand you correctly, you feel…."  This method often calms the situation and clears up misunderstandings.

2. Role Reversal

Ask each girl to state the point of view of the other girl.  Then ask each to confirm whether her point of view was understood correctly.  Putting oneself in another's place is an important life skill.

3. Creative Solutions

Help girls step outside the "I win, You lose" method of problem-solving, and encourage brainstorming creative solutions that satisfy both parties.  The solution they choose may not be the one you would, but if it pleases them and they are willing to both work toward resolution, that's what counts.

At first you will have to actively mediate the conflicts between the girls.  DON'T BECOME DISCOURAGED!  Sometimes the only Troop activity at your meeting might be to resolve a conflict.  The meeting was not wasted!  The girls involved in the conflict learned important life skills, and every girl watching learned as well.  More importantly, the girls learned that you are a fair and impartial adult who can restore order and create a safe space for them.

In the conflict between Darla and Monique, or whatever situation is affecting Lakeshia, what do you think each girl might say when coached in one or more of the above conflict resolution skills?

Darla and Monique: _______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Lakeshia: ________________________________________________________________

Conflict Resolution for Daisies and Brownies

Ways to help Daisies and Brownies prevent and resolve conflicts.

You are at a Troop meeting and there is a lot going on.  During the outdoor game, Madison accidentally kicked Jasmine, and Jasmine is sniffling.  Madison explains loudly that it wasn't her fault.  Your co-leader steps in with an ice pack.  At the same time, Emily begins her job of distributing the snack, but you notice that she is trying a new way of pouring juice - with her eyes shut!  Just then, Samantha stands up and shouts at Olivia and Olivia bursts into tears.

Yikes!  It's hard to stay focused in situations where a lot is happening at once.  You need listening and conflict resolution skills you can use yourself and teach to the girls.

SKILLS YOU CAN USE:

1. Stop it before it starts

The first conflict resolution skill is prevention.  Some situations will still occur despite our best efforts to "be prepared", but in some cases planning and forethought might reduce or avoid conflict.  As you and the girls get more experience being a Troop, you'll get more skillful at heading off upsets before they begin.

Can you think of ways that any of the above situations could have been prevented or mitigated?

Madison and Jasmine: _____________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Emily and the juice:  _______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Samantha and Olivia: ______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2. Be present and attentive

Being calm and attentive are important skills to exercise in any situation, and especially when things get chaotic.  If you were planning to use snack time to quickly read over the instructions for the next activity, the impact of all the above is going to be even more stressful.  Decide ahead of time that once the meeting starts, you will be present and available to the girls the entire time, and stay attentive and involved.  When you are distracted, the girls will notice and react poorly.

How might these situations have been different if an attentive adult were seated at the snack table?

Emily and the juice:  _______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Samantha and Olivia: ______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

3. Listen well

Part of being attentive is being a good listener.  Periodically ask yourself these questions:  Do I look at a girl when she is speaking to me?  Do I interrupt?  Do I wait to give a girl a chance to answer me?  Does my body language and facial expression indicate interest or distraction?  You model attitudes of attention and caring for your Troop by listening.

What might your co-leader be doing to help Madison and Jasmine work out their conflict?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

SKILLS YOU CAN TEACH THE GIRLS:

1. Active Listening

In many conflicts, what each person wants is just to be heard, to have her point of view acknowledged.  In active listening, each person restates in her own words what she heard the other say.  Use phrases like "It sounds like you said…." Or "If I understand you correctly, you feel…."  This method often calms the situation and clears up misunderstandings.

2. Role Reversal

Ask each girl to state the point of view of the other girl.  Then ask each to confirm whether her point of view was understood correctly.  Putting oneself in another's place is an important life skill.

3. Creative Solutions

Help girls step outside the "I win, You lose" method of problem-solving, and encourage brainstorming creative solutions that satisfy both parties.  The solution they choose may not be the one you would, but if it pleases them and they are willing to both work toward resolution, that's what counts.

At first you will have to actively mediate the conflicts between the girls.  DON'T BECOME DISCOURAGED!  Sometimes the only Troop activity at your meeting might be to resolve a conflict.  The meeting was not wasted!  The girls involved in the conflict learned important life skills, and every girl watching learned as well.  More importantly, the girls learned that you are a fair and impartial adult who can restore order and create a safe space for them.

In the conflict between Madison and Jasmine, or Samantha and Olivia, what do you think each girl might say when coached in one or more of the above conflict resolution skills?

Madison and Jasmine: _____________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Samantha and Olivia: ______________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________